Chipped Plastic
by ChronicSheep
Summary: [ SPOILERS ] An AU for The Lego Movie 2 in which Rex decides that time travel may not be such a great idea.
1. Chapter 1: Plan B

Emmet slowly blinked his eyes open and the world around him blurred into view, a dismal place whose only light beamed far out of his reach. The first sensation that came to him was that his entire left side was sore, it was always sore, why wouldn't it be from lying on cold, hard, dirty concrete for who knows how long.

'Good morning, Dry'er' he thought to himself in a slightly-depressed tone.

Today was yet another day of watching his idyllic home from afar; joyful scenes that played out before him repeating over and over again. He wondered if anyone even remembered anymore, if anyone bothered to care that he was gone, after all, he knew someone who was absolutely obsessed with spaceships, and yet not even he came to his rescue.

At the beginning he was hopeful that his friends were worried about him, that eventually he would be reunited with everyone and go back to his rough, yet still welcoming, Apocalypseburg, but no. In fact, things appeared to vastly improve after he left, almost as if they were all celebrating the fact that he was gone. A big, months long, going away party that he wasn't invited to.

He wasn't wanted, he wasn't needed, he never was in the first place. Unikitty, Metalbeard, Batman, Benny, Lucy, they were all much happier now that he was out of their lives. They didn't have annoying Emmet around to ruin everything like he usually did. To them he was about as useful as a piece of garbage!

Whoah. Okay. Everything went dark. Emmet blinked in confusion and attempted to look around, but was greeted with nothing but a dusty ceiling. A ceiling, he was on his back! He had actually moved! He almost couldn't believe it, and was overjoyed with the promise that somehow he could escape! Emmet struggled again, slamming his hands onto the ground and clattering towards the edge of the Dry'er. He writhed and twisted, finally enabling himself to stand upright and once again look out upon the sight which he had become accustomed to after so much time, granted now from a vastly improved angle. Lucy said he should toughen up? Well, she would get her wish.

With his newly acquired ability, Emmet rushed toward the closest table and grappled onto a loose wire, which was surprisingly easy to scale, and found himself in a categorized collection of various parts. If he was going to be tough, he'd have to get rid of that everyman haircut and bright-orange outfit.

Emmet rummaged around in various bins, before locating something he liked, albeit a slightly shaggier brown haircut and a darker vest, but at least it looked cool. After making his way to a nearby mirror to examine himself, he decided that his face was definitely… non threatening, and so drew himself a new one, officially becoming- The Cooler Emmet! Okay no, that wouldn't work.

'Cool, Awesome, Better...' He paced in front of the mirror the best he cold, thinking to himself, 'Mind-blowing, Radical-Radical?' He came to a halt and looked at himself once again, 'Yeah Yeah, Radical Emmet!' He felt proud of himself, but the more he thought about it, he figured people would just default to calling him Emmet that way, he'd have to be more creative, come up with an actual name, but he still liked the 'Radical' part. 'Radical Emmet, uh Raem...Uh Ree..Reh Rex!' That sounded alright, he didn't know what the X stood for yet, if anything, but would probably think of it later. Maybe something like X-treme but-better.

He looked at himself once again and smirked, just on the inside because his unchanging plastic face couldn't really convey that. From this point forward he would be Rex! He triumphantly posed, Rex Danger… vest. Sure, that'd work. It was the only thing he could come up with, really.

He took a moment to think about what to do next, but that train of thought flew off the rails when he was interrupted by the sounds of laughter coming from nearby, turning to see the giant monster once again indulging in her sickly sweet musings, having fun with the various people in her grasp. He turned away, disgusted, how could the world have come to this? If only he could go back and stop this from ever happening. Or at least stop himself from crashing into the Stairgate's asteroids.

It was almost as if a light bulb popped over his head, he _could_ go back. After all, there were various vehicles and machines perfectly capable of time travel in the area, all he would have to do is "borrow" some pieces, travel to the moment before he crashed, and-wait. Rex shook his head, all that would do is stop himself from existing, in fact, _anything_ time-travel related would probably end up in some paradoxical mischief that would get him wiped from reality. If he wanted to do something, he'd have to do it here and now.

Rex gazed at the New Apocalypseburg, splattered with colorful paint, adorned with bright lights, and a mix of Bricksburg residents and those from beyond the Stairgate. The metaphorical light bulb above him flickered into life again, and he backed up until he was pressed against the mirror, then made a running jump towards the table in front of him.

As soon as his leg clicked into place upon the brick ground, the four walls around him swirled and melded into a beautiful blue, with fluffy clouds passing calmly by and a big, bright sun to shine down upon everything. Various animals populating the trees and forest floor around him sprang to life, then immediately ran away due to the sudden appearance of a strange figure in their home. He was ecstatic to feel the bumpy grass beneath his feet, though even with being so far away from Apocalypseburg, Rex could still hear the bubbly pop music emanating from the distance. "Yuck," He commented, gasping and holding his hand to his mouth immediately afterward; it had been so long since he heard his own voice that he almost forgot what it sounded like. Admittedly that would have to change too, but everything was going to change, and this time it would be for the better.


	2. Chapter 2: You're Invited

"Alright kid, here's the breakdown on my plan, Rex's Extreme Victory over Everyone that Never Got Emmet, o E," He stated, spreading out his arms and pausing for dramatic effect, "Check it out," He motioned towards several large pieces of paper stuck to the cliffside behind him filled entirely with a crudely drawn plot, "Step one: Rename myself Rex Dangervest and get a cool new look. Check," Emphasis was placed on his own name; a check mark appeared on the paper with a quick strike of a red pen. "Step two: Gain everybody's trust and become super popular, easy," Rex pointed out a picture of himself surrounded by people cheering, "Step three: Be introduced to Queen Whateverherface and get her to like me," That part he seemed the most disinterested with; the drawing of The Queen was just a humanoid scribble, " Step four, the best step: Get her alone, lock her up, take her crown, and obtain whatever power she had to make everyone feel like I did!" Rex let out a prolonged diabolical laugh, then sighed with relief, "You getting all this?"

The fern, which he had quickly dubbed Planty II, gave no response.

"And I'm talking to a plant," Rex realized that his time in isolation may have had a bit more of an effect on him then he thought. He grabbed the sheets of paper behind him, crumpled them up, and stuffed them into his pockets, then briskly stormed to the city with a sense of purpose that he hadn't felt since he first left.

The thumping beat of pop music grew ever louder as he approached; Rex couldn't help but grumble. It only reminded him how much his so-called friends were having fun without him. He could see the bright colors of one of the streets scream out at him in stark contrast to the mostly green forest and, after passing through a set of bushes, was through to the bustling area filled with hues of pink and purple. Blissful denizens flitted to and fro, building to their heart's content, Rex almost wished he could enjoy it, but this was a world that had left him behind.

"Excuse me?" Rex tapped a nearby Stairgate-inhabitant, he really needed to come up with a name for wherever they were from, on the shoulder, "Do you know Lucy? Wears a hoodie, black hair, got blue and pink streaks in it?"

"Sorry! No idea~!" The other replied in a high-pitched voice that almost hurt Rex's ears more than the booming rhythm desperately trying to worm it's way into his brain. He was only partially surprised about the fact his first reaction with another being was so harsh and grating.

Okay, of course they probably wouldn't know some random person named Lucy, "Alright, what about Metalbeard? Know him?" That pirate was unique enough to be recognized by anybody.

"Let's see-oh! Yeah! Metalbeard! I know him! Well not like _know_ him know him but I know _of_ him!"

Did they honestly need a second to think about whether or not they had seen a giant robot pirate with a pair of cannons for a hand? Either way that wasn't too helpful.

"Do you know where he _is?_" He was already fed up with this.

"Nope!"

Great. That conversation just wasted his time then, in that case he would have to go looking for any one of them himself as asking around such a large city would be completely pointless, besides, it wasn't like someone he knew was just going to conveniently pop up-

"HEYA!"

The former construction worker jumped and turned to face a cheerful pink cat with a baby blue horn sticking out of it's head. "I haven't seen you around here before, and I know pretty much _everybody_, nice to meet you! I'm Unikitty!" She extended one of her hooves in friendship.

The other blinked, even with how much Apocalypseburg had changed, he was still surprised to see Unikitty as her old self again and not as her fearsome Ultrakatty persona, "It's E-" Rex coughed, "Rex. Rex Dangervest." He smirked while disregarding Unikitty's proposed handshake, trying his best to seem like this reunion was actually something he enjoyed, he was going to have to get used to that. "I've heard a lot of awesome things about you and your friends. You know, I'd love to finally meet them." Rex wasn't sure if his smile came off as genuine.

"I could introduce you! Although, Benny and Metalbeard are usually on their planets, of course-"

They were given their own planets?

"And Batman would probably be with the queen!"

"Waitwaitwait hold on. _What_ did you say? Why would Batman be with _her?_"

"Uh, because he's married to her, _duh!_ How could you _not_ know that?"

Okay something was definitely wrong then, Batman was the last person that Rex expected to get married, and yet something happened to him that made him want to be with an alien queen, this was worse than Rex thought.

"I guess It's because I'm so busy." He half-heartedly chuckled.

"Hm, oh!" Little stars appeared over the cat's head, "What if we threw a party and invited everyone- so then you could meet them!"

"Great idea, but doesn't it… already feel like a party?" Rex tensed up slightly; He disliked the idea of being engulfed by music that was any louder then it already was.

"No silly! There's not _nearly_ enough streamers. Come on, let's get planning!" Unikitty giddily bounced down the street, stopping at the corner to see if Rex would follow, he did so, although without as much fervor.


End file.
